時間表現「いま」の考察 : ――「求心性」に注目して――

Abstract

This paper examined the meaning of “ima [now],” a temporal expression in contemporary Japanese that basically represents the point of time of an utterance. It has so far been pointed out that, although “ima” sometimes may represent a point of time before or after an utterance, it always converges to the point of time of an utterance. This is due to, among others, the fact that “ima” basically does not have a temporal range and that it does not take a value by itself. This is confirmed by the fact that expressions such as “ima no aida” or “ima no ato” are unnatural ones that only occur under particular circumstances. Based on these, “ima” was characterized as having a property in common with expressions of time, space, and extent that converge to the prototype, such as “uchi,” “hodo,” and “yori.” This property was explained as “centripetality.”